Root Scottys noob friendly root guide-start to finish

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ok,i keep seeing the same questions being asked over and over,so i decided to go ahead and make up my own guide. i maintain alot of stuff in the TB and inc forum still,so i was originally leery of adding to my list of threads to support,but hopefully i can spell it out a lil clearer than some of the current guides. i know reading thru htcdevs directions,and looking thru some posts here it can seem overwhelming,but when y ou break each step down its all really easy.

most guides simply say "follow the directions to unlock with htcdev" but im gonna go thru it with ya the mini-adb.zip file is all the files that htcdev is telling you to download and put into a folder,so allready this should be a lil easier

1)prepair ADB
-unzip your mini-adb.zip file. this is native funtionality in windows 7. you otherwise may need a utility such as "7-zip" to extract,or unzip it. place the unzipped folder onto the root of your C\ drive on your PC(sorry, you mac guys will need to develop this for yourself,i dont have a mac). root means the top level,not inside any folders. so just copy and paste,or drag and drop the folder onto C with everything else that is there. rename it to "mini-adb_vigor" since youll be putting some vigor(rezound) specific files in here. you actually can call it whatver you want,but directions from here forward will assume this folder to be named "mini-adb_vigor"
-open a command window. on windows 7,click the start bubble in the lower left and type "command" in the search box. xp i believe is similar or the same. doing this should open a small black command window.
-change to your mini-adb_vigor directory. type the following at the prompt in your cmd window:

if your drivers are installed correctly,this should return your phones serial number. you should hear the "found device" noises when you plug your phone in. if it starts installing drivers,wait for it to finish before typing the adb devices command.

2)unlock using htcdev
-go to HTCdev - Unlock Bootloader and sign in to your account. chose "rezound" from the "select your device bar" and click the green "begin unlock bootloader" button underneath.
-click yes to procede,then read the warnings before checking the boxes and clicking yes to continue,as they are basically explaining that your warranty is now void,and any repairs that your phone needs that may have been a result of unlocking your bootloader and messing with your phones operating system may no longer be covered under mfgr warranty
-steps 1-4 are describing how to get your phone into bootloader mode and connect it to your PC,wich we have done above. ignore these steps and simply type in your cmd window:

adb reboot bootloader

it may take several seconds,but this command should boot your phone into the "fastboot" screen wich is white with a bunch of colored writing. once this happens,make sure your phone is still being seen in fastboot. type:

fastboot devices

again,this should return your phones serial number.

-click the green procede to step 5 bubble.
-steps 5-7 are telling you how to find the files and utilities inside your mini-adb folder. you have them,so ignore steps 5-7.
-click the green procede to step 8 bubble.
-heres where steps are important,steps 8-10 are telling you how to get your unlock token,and send it to htc. its phone specific(so they prolly know your serial number,meid,etc) so no,you cant use your buddys unlock token and not have htc know that youve unlocked your bootloader. copy this line either from below,or from step 8,and paste it into the prompt in your cmd window. you have to right click to paste in cmd,you cannot control/v :

fastboot oem get_identifier_token

-after yuo hit enter,you will get a bunch of letters that are your identifier token. not much i can say,other than follow the directions in steps 9 and 10 to copy and submit your identifier token to HTC. make sure you get the characters as shown in the pic,with no extra lines or letters. note that you can also hit the "enter" key on your PC to copy,as well as right clicking.
-click the green submit button. wait patiently for an email containing your unlock code. (dont worry,it should come pretty fast )
-save the unlock_code.bin that htc sends you directly to your mini-adb_vigor folder(if your PC automatically downloads somewhere else,no biggie. just move the unlock code to mini-adb_vigor)
-click the link in your email to get the rest of the unlock instructions
-step 12 is where them magic happens copy from below,or from htc dev:

fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin

-youll see the purdy screen pictured in step 13. use the vol rocker to chose "yes unlock bootloader" and select it with the power button. your phone will reboot,performaing a factory data reset in the process. your data is gone,sorry this boot may take a bit longer than they normally do,dont freak out this is normal

as you can see,once the adb files are put in one place to download,its not hard to use,and the commands are pretty simple. below is what you will see in your command window,the red are my inputs.

if you want to run stock,do not permanently install your recovery. keeping the stock recovery on the phone will ensure that you recieve OTAs without a hitch,wich i know is important to alot of users. YES,the OTA will break root. its no big deal. one good thing about htcdev is that you will always be able to reroot after,simply by following steps 2 and 3 again to launch recovery,flash superser.

once youve either skipped past all the setup,or have re-set up and are ready to root,chose ONE of these 2 options:

1)temporary recovery:

-move the image file you downloaded above for amon RA and place it into the mini-adb_vigor folder.
-put the superuser zip file onto your phones sd card
-enable usb debugging once again,as above. open a cmd window,if its not still open from unlocking.
-if you had to re-open a cmd window,dont forget to change back to your mini-adb_vigor directory:

cd c:\mini-adb_vigor

-make sure youre connected by typing:

adb devices

-should return serial number
-check the md5 of your recovery image:

md5sums<recoveryname>.img

**make sure the resulting md5 matches the one that drellisdee lists for the image that you downloaded. **

-move the image file you downloaded above for amon RA and place it into the mini-adb_vigor folder.
-enable usb debugging once again,as above. open a cmd window,if its not still open from unlocking.
-if you had to re-open a cmd window,dont forget to change back to your mini-adb_vigor directory:

cd c:\mini-adb_vigor

-make sure youre connected by typing:

adb devices

-should return serial number
-check the md5 of your recovery image:

md5sums<recoveryname>.img

**make sure the resulting md5 matches the one that drellisdee lists for the image that you downloaded. **

-youll see a (really fast) green status bar on the top right as your PC sends the recovery to your phone,then a (really,really fast) red bar as it flashes it. amon ra is now permanently on your phone when you need it. be aware that you can no longer accept OTAs,unless you reinstall the stock recovery at some point before the next OTAs are pushed.
-to get to recovery,push the power button to select hboot. once in hboot wait for the green writing to flash and disapear,then select recovery.

*note that you can still launch recovery by using the command from scenario 1 above. i reccomend doing it this way. without complex explanations,its better
-youll then see the HTC splash screen,then your recovery.

there is not much to explain with this one. if booted to recovery from above,use the recovery menu on your phone to:
-make a backup of your stock,unrooted rom. completely optional,but a very good idea,IMO.
-wipe cache
-wipe dalvik cache
-install zip from sd card(chose your superuser file)
-reboot

*congratulations,youre rooted

*note that you do not neccessarily need to flash superuser. if you want to flash a custom rom,you can go ahead and do that now,no need to root your stock rom first.

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the main version is simply the software build version. it is checked by the s-on hboot to make sure that we do not roll back our firmware to what HTC considers inferior and obsolete(and in some cases,exploitable ) older software/firmware.

the first place it is checked is the "android info" text document. this is simply a small text file that is packaged inside of hboot flashable PH98IMG files. if the file fails this check,and finds the "main version" in the text document to be lower than the software on the phone,it will either return siliently to the hboot screen without explanation,or it will spit out a "main version older!" error.

here is a very basic android info text document i always use in making up PH98IMG files:

Code (Text):

modelid: PH9810000

cidnum: VZW__001

mainver: 2.01.605.11

hbootpreupdate:12

heres the one that comes inside the 2.11.605.01 RUU:

Code (Text):

modelid: PH9810000

cidnum: VZW__001

mainver: 2.01.605.11

hbootpreupdate:12

DelCache:1

DelFat:1

you will sometimes see different "hboot preupdate" numbers,and different things inside. i havent messed with them enuff to know(or care ) what it all means.

*you can use the directions at the end of the post to find out what your main version info is,if you need to(or maybe i should move those directions up here? hmm).

if you find yourself with a main version error you will need to do ONE of the following 2 things:

1)edit the android info text document
to alot of folks this is the easier thing to do. just like it sounds,you need to edit the main version number of the text file to be equal to or greater than your softwares main version.

i.e.,if you are on 1.02.605.6,your main version could be 1.02.605.6, 2.01.605.11, or 3.xx.xxx.x

-take the .zip file you want to flash,and unzip it. you can unzip many files without anything special in windows 7. if youre on xp,or for signed files that you cant simply right click,then "extract" you may need a utility such as 7-zip.
-open the unzipped folder and click on the android info text document to open with your favorite text editor.
-change the main version number to be = or > than yours.

Code (Text):

modelid: PH9810000

cidnum: VZW__001

mainver: 2.01.605.11 [COLOR="blue"]<- edit this number[/COLOR]

hbootpreupdate:12

-save the text document. close it. open it again for peace of mind that it changed
-rezip your file. in windows 7 this is as easy a highlighting the android info document,and any images. right click,click "send to" then "compressed(zipped) folder". older versions of windows may need a seperate utility.

your file *should* flash now.

*or

2)edit the main version on your phone

a)old school method

download this modified misc image from this threadon xda. make sure to click the "thanks" button for mrbracht.
-place the modified misc image onto your SD card,and make sure it is named " miscnew "
*next you must be booted into a rooted operating system.
-put the phone in charge only mode,plug it in if its not.
-open a cmd window as described in post 1
-change to your mini-adb_vigor directorycd c:\mini-adb_vigor

-make sure youre connectedadb devices

-open a root shell. have your phone awake and unlocked before doing this,as sometimes you will have to allow a supeuser pop up if youre running a stock rom.

adb shell (prompt should change to a # .if your prompt only changes to a $,then type su )

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Thanks this is great! I finally feel comfortable going through the root process! I think this should get sticky as this is very noob friendly! Now how about an unroot and relock guide. I know you said in another forum my bootloader will say "relocked", but for warranty Verizon probably wont look at that...

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Thanks this is great! I finally feel comfortable going through the root process! I think this should get sticky as this is very noob friendly! Now how about an unroot and relock guide. I know you said in another forum my bootloader will say "relocked", but for warranty Verizon probably wont look at that...

Click to expand...

It is stickied in the All Things Root guide.

Also a Super Noob Unroot and Relock would round it off wouldn't it. We all have to give a lot of credit to Scotty for all these write up's he does.

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Thanks this is great! I finally feel comfortable going through the root process! I think this should get sticky as this is very noob friendly! Now how about an unroot and relock guide. I know you said in another forum my bootloader will say &quot;relocked&quot;, but for warranty Verizon probably wont look at that...

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I got through unlocking the bootloader without a problem, however having issues flashing recovery. At the step where you enter fastboot boot <recoveryname>.img after I do that this is what I get.... (note I renamed the recovery file to just "recovery" but its the same recommended in the instructions).

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Thanks, tired eyes...missed that. However just tried it with the missing command "boot" to temporarily flash and received message saying "cannot load 'recovery.img'
I checked the mini-adb_vigor folder on the c: to confirm it was there and named correctly and it is. Tried placing it there again and flashing recovery with same result. Frustrated that I'm so close but stalled, any help is appreciated.

Is it truly permanent? Or is there an way to flash the stock recovery if I decided to. Sounds to me like with permanent it would be easier to flash the super user back on after an OTA? or am I missing something?

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Is it truly permanent? Or is there an way to flash the stock recovery if I decided to. Sounds to me like with permanent it would be easier to flash the super user back on after an OTA? or am I missing something?

Click to expand...

it is permanent in the sense that it stays until you flash something else. so yes,you can flash the stock recovery back if you want to. IMO there is not a whole lot of point to permanently flashing a recovery,since you cant really do anything without being connected to a PC anyway you need a PC to flash the kernels,and restore backups.

a permanent recovery will NOT make it easier to restore superuser. it will,in fact,prevent you from recieving the OTA,making it neccessary to relock,and run an RUU in order to get the updates,thus making what is normally a seamless process un-neccessarily complex.

only the STOCK recovery can apply vzw's OTA updates,so its best to just leave it on the phone if you want to run stock and recieve the OTAs.

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a permanent recovery will NOT make it easier to restore superuser. it will,in fact,prevent you from recieving the OTA,making it neccessary to relock,and run an RUU in order to get the updates,thus making what is normally a seamless process un-neccessarily complex.

Click to expand...

Wow. That's a very compelling reason not to flash a permanent recovery. You may have just convinced me although it's too late for me. Looks like I have to run the RUU .exe before I can receive the next OTA. Bummer.

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it is permanent in the sense that it stays until you flash something else. so yes,you can flash the stock recovery back if you want to. IMO there is not a whole lot of point to permanently flashing a recovery,since you cant really do anything without being connected to a PC anyway you need a PC to flash the kernels,and restore backups.

a permanent recovery will NOT make it easier to restore superuser. it will,in fact,prevent you from recieving the OTA,making it neccessary to relock,and run an RUU in order to get the updates,thus making what is normally a seamless process un-neccessarily complex.

only the STOCK recovery can apply vzw's OTA updates,so its best to just leave it on the phone if you want to run stock and recieve the OTAs.

hope that clears it up

Click to expand...

I think its finally clear. As long as I just boot, and don't flash amon ra I can receive the next OTA like normal then boot amon again and install super user? Will the process still work the same with each OTA?

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Wow. That's a very compelling reason not to flash a permanent recovery. You may have just convinced me although it's too late for me. Looks like I have to run the RUU .exe before I can receive the next OTA. Bummer.

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you dont really need to run the RUU. you can just flash the stock recovery back,just like you flashed amon

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I went through all of the steps and everything seemed to work perfectly. However, when I flashed super user it went for a bit then said "install aborted". I rebooted the phone anyway and I have a super user app, but no apps can gain root access. I tried TiBu and rootchecker basic.

Did I do something wrong? I downloaded all the files exactly as you said. I don't see what happened?